leah parks

Energy expert Leah Parks says renewable energy technologies are poised to disrupt fossil fuels, in an insightful article published recently on TriplePundit. Here’s a short excerpt:

“Exponential growth clean-energy technologies are a most powerful not-so-secret weapon for our last, best effort in the fight against disastrous climate change. A 21st-century energy transformation is already underway. Our digital revolution is facilitating massive progress in technologies that are leading to disruption and will result in the replacement of the fossil fuel industry faster than most could imagine.

“We can jump over political resistance and climate denial despite outdated and misinformed all-of-the above federal policies. Our modern-day Edisons have done their job. We are at a tipping point where technological innovations that have been in development for many years can now provide us with all the energy we need at ever decreasing costs.”

“We need only look at the last turn of the century to see how quickly transformation can happen.

“In 1903 we took our first flight, and New York city streets were filled with buggies. By 1914 we were fighting a war in the air and the same streets teemed with cars. The engineering which first made spaceflight possible was developed in 1919. Within 38 years Sputnik was launched, and 12 years later we walked on the moon.

“We can jump over political resistance and climate denial despite outdated and misinformed all-of-the above federal policies. Our modern-day Edisons have done their job. We are at a tipping point where technological innovations that have been in development for many years can now provide us with all the energy we need at ever decreasing costs.”

“We need only look at the last turn of the century to see how quickly transformation can happen.

“In 1903 we took our first flight, and New York city streets were filled with buggies. By 1914 we were fighting a war in the air and the same streets teemed with cars. The engineering which first made spaceflight possible was developed in 1919. Within 38 years Sputnik was launched, and 12 years later we walked on the moon.

“The exact form our energy infrastructure will take by the year 2050 is not certain, but it will be cleaner, cheaper and safer than the one we inherited from the 20th century. Electric vehicles and trains, as well as heat pumps, will play a major role. Solar, wind and storage, paired with digital management and energy efficiency, are already being deployed.

“We are witnessing the end of an energy dinosaur. This is a new era of clean energy, ready to obtain its fuel free of charge from the sun and wind. Anyone looking backward will be left in the digital dust. They will be made extinct by the unrelenting disruptive force of exponential growth technologies.

“Working against entrenched interests can be frustrating and at times make optimism difficult. In moments of doubt, let’s not forget the words of Robert Hutchings Goddard, the father of space flight, ‘The dream of yesterday is the hope of todayand the reality of tomorrow.'”